“There are people who are trying to write history for the general reader who can be quite tedious. That said, I do feel in my heart of hearts that if history isn't well written, it isn't going to be read, and if it isn't read it's going to die.” PeopleIfsFeelsWritingTryingWellsHeartSaidDiesWrittenReaderMy HeartTediousWell Written Author:David McCullough
“Yes, I, well, when I write, as often as I can, I try to write as if I'm talking to people. It doesn't always work, and one shouldn't always try it, but I try and write as if I am talking, and trying to engage the reader in conversation.” PeopleIfsWritingTryingWellsI CanTalkingReaderConversation Author:Christopher Hitchens
“When you're writing a book that is going to be a narrative with characters and events, you're walking very close to fiction, since you're using some of the methods of fiction writing. You're lying, but some of the details may well come from your general recollection rather than from the particular scene. In the end it comes down to the readers. If they believe you, you're OK. A memoirist is really like any other con man; if he's convincing, he's home. If he isn't, it doesn't really matter whether it happened, he hasn't succeeded in making it feel convincing.” IfsMenFeelsWritingBelieveWellsMayBookEndsMatterCharacterHomeLyingFictionHappenedEventsParticularReaderWalkingSceneMethodDetailsNarrativeConvincingWriting A BookRecollectionFiction Writing Author:Samuel Hynes
“When I talk about the pleasure principle, I don't say there is only one kind of pleasure, there are many kinds of pleasure. Some pleasure is difficult. It should be for the reader as well as the writer. But it has to be pleasure.” ShouldWellsKindDifficultPleasurePrinciplesReader Author:Martin Amis
“There's no subject you don't have permission to write about. Students often avoid subjects close to their heart ... because they assume that their teachers will regard those topics as 'stupid.' No area of life is stupid to someone who takes it seriously. If you follow your affections you will write well and will engage your readers.” IfsWritingWellsHeartLife IsTeacherSubjectsStupidStudentsReaderAreasRegardAssumingAffectionPermissionTopics Author:William Zinsser
“I have the Sony Reader; I have the Kindle as well. I don't really use either of them, to be honest. I'd rather sit down with a cup of coffee and a newspaper than read all my digital books.” WellsBookUseHonestReaderCoffeeNewspapersCupsBeing HonestDigitalCoffee CupKindlesSony Author:Chad Hurley
“And though it is most certain, that two lutes being both strung and turned to an equal pitch, and then one played upon, the other will warble a faint audible harmony in answer to the same tune: yet many will not believe there is any such thing as sympathy of souls, and I am well pleased that every reader do enjoy his own opinion.” BelieveWellsTwoSoulCertainEnjoyAnswersOpinionReaderEqualHarmonyTunes Author:Izaak Walton
“Einstein and the Quantum is delightful to read, with numerous historical details that were new to me and cham1ing vignettes of Einstein and his colleagues. By avoiding mathematics, Stone makes his book accessible to general readers, but even physicists who are well versed in Einstein and his physics are likely to find new insights into the most remarkable mind of the modern era.” MindWellsBookModernReaderStonesMathematicsHistoricalDetailsInsightPhysicsErasRemarkableQuantumColleaguesAvoidingDelightfulPhysicistModern EraVignettes Author:Daniel Kleppner
“There are three big things going for The Scorpio Races: first, it is set on a beautiful but wild island in the middle of the cold Atlantic Ocean. That would've seduced me as a teen reader. Second, It is full of beautiful but killer horses being trained for a dangerous race. Actually, that would've seduced me as a teen reader as well. At third it involves a very repressed love story with a very Mr. Darcy-like love interest.” FirstsWellsStoriesBigsBeautifulThreeInterestRaceMiddleDangerousColdReaderOceanThirdsHorseLove StoryIslandsKillersBig ThingsLike LoveRepressedDarcyAtlantic OceanScorpiosScorpio Races Author:Maggie Stiefvater
“...You believe that the kind of story you want to tell might be best received by the science fiction and fantasy audience. I hope you're right, because in many ways this is the best audience in the world to write for. They're open-minded and intelligent. They want to think as well as feel, understand as well as dream. Above all, they want to be led into places that no one has ever visited before. It's a privilege to tell stories to these readers, and an honour when they applaud the tale you tell.” ThinkingWorldWayWantFeelsWritingBelieveWellsKindStoriesDreamMightFictionFantasyAudienceReaderIntelligentScience FictionPrivilegeTalesHonourOpen MindedScience Fiction And Fantasy Author:Orson Scott Card
“As soon as I start to write I'm very aware, I'm trying to be aware that a reader just might well pick up this poem, a stranger. So when I'm writing - and I think that this is important for all writers - I'm trying to be a writer and a reader back and forth. I write two lines or three lines. I will immediately stop and turn into a reader instead of a writer, and I'll read those lines as if I had never seen them before and as if I had never written them.” IfsThinkingWritingTryingWellsTwoImportantMightTurnsThreeLinesWrittenReaderPicksStrangerBack And Forth Author:Billy Collins
“As a publisher what you are trying to build is a long life for a book, to help it find its readers in many different ways, whether or not it made this list or got that review, etc. I'm sure some of that thinking has been useful to me as a writer as well.” ThinkingWayTryingWellsLongHas BeensMadeBookDifferentHelpingReaderListsDifferent WaysEtcReviewsPublishersLong Life Author:Danielle Dutton
“Well, the fact is, we can never know what people do in the privacy of their own rooms. The door is closed. The blinds are drawn. We don't know. I leave it up to the reader. But there's no doubt in my mind that they loved each other, and this was an ardent, loving relationship between two adult women.” PeopleKnowsMindWellsTwoFactsRoomsDoubtDoorsReaderAdultsNo DoubtPrivacyArdentLoving Relationships Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“The editor needs to put his own life on hold for the better of the magazine, the crew, and the readers. And to have a bigger vision of the magazine's style and an understanding that every [issue] should be well-balanced and hopefully surprising. To have a pink wall with a door of perception where he can bang his head on.” NeedsShouldWellsUnderstandingVisionIssuesDoorsStyleWallReaderPerceptionBiggerMagazinesHopefullyEditorsSurprisingBalancedCrewBangsDoors Of Perception Author:Toni Jerrman
“I would like to undermine the stereotype of "strict philosophy." J.L. Austin remarked that, when philosophy is done well, it's all over by the bottom of the first page. I take him to have meant that the real work comes in setting up the problem with which you are dealing, and thus getting your reader to take particular things for granted.” FirstsWellsRealDonePhilosophyProblemParticularReaderPagesBottomSettingSettingsGrantedStrictStereotypeAustinReal Work Author:Philip Kitcher
“What's fascinating is where they come from in the world. People in Bangladesh, a chap in a fire-base in Tikrit in Iraq. Chap in an Irish pub in Dublin. And lovely to think this literary network - or rather network of readers - is well spread out.” PeopleThinkingWorldWellsFireReaderIraqSpreadLovelyFascinatingPubsBangladeshDublinChaps Author:John Gimlette
“There's a huge and hungry market for the books on style and fashion in Russia, though the books should be done in Russian, not English since there are few readers who've master foreign languages well enough to buy foreign editions.” ShouldWellsBookDoneEnoughLanguageFashionStyleMastersHugeReaderRussiaHungryForeign LanguageFashion And Style Author:Alexander Vassiliev
“Through Heaven's Gate and Back speaks to all of us that have been abused as children. Lee Thornton's descriptions of the aftereffects of repeated trauma and a profound Near-Death Experience (NDE) are not only true but explained in a way that the reader can take in. It is rare to find a book so well written that it has both sexual abuse and an NDE under one cover. We definitely will be recommending this book to our patients.” WayWellsChildrenHas BeensBookSpeakHeavenWrittenReaderAbuseProfoundPatientTraumaDescriptionGatesWell WrittenNear DeathNear Death Experience Author:Charles L. Whitfield
“Mainly, I try not to think about my readers as I write - I just think of my characters and myself - If they're interesting to me, my hope is that they'll be interesting to others as well.” IfsThinkingWritingTryingWellsCharacterInterestingReader Author:Jacqueline Woodson
“I grew up as a reader as well as a movie-lover, so many of the novelists I admired - and so many of the great filmmakers I loved - were self-taught.” WellsSelfTaughtGrewReaderLoversGrew UpNovelistsFilmmakerGreat FilmSelf Taught Author:Curtis Hanson
“A book can just be a description of a stick being snapped in half. If the reader is brought to feel the plight of the stick, well, you can imagine what that would be like.” IfsFeelsWellsBookWould BeHalfImagineReaderSticksDescriptionPlight Author:Jesse Ball
“You may be somebody who writes best for a small press that doesn't pay very well, but you might have a fascinating and intricate style that might not appeal to as many readers but will be incredibly meaningful to the readers you have. Truly, that's as wonderful if not more wonderful.” IfsWritingWellsMayMightPayWonderfulStyleReaderPressesMeaningfulAppealsFascinatingIntricate Author:Alice Mattison
“When I'm writing, I'm thinking, "Well, this might be a book that I'll always be happy with, and certainly readers will be happy with." But another part of me knows that when I'm past the stage of writing, the book is gonna have good things about it, bad things about it - probably more bad than good. I just know that. That's who I am.” ThinkingKnowsWritingWellsBookMightPastStageReaderGood ThingsWho I AmBad ThingsAlways Be Happy Author:John Edgar Wideman
“If you understand writing as primarily engaging an imaginary reader, well, you've kind of been doing that your whole life. You walk into a room and you're engaging with imaginary strangers because you don't actually know who they are. For me, it was really empowering to say: this is a branch of entertainment and communication and engagement, as opposed to jumping over some perceived literary high bar. That was the buzzkill.” IfsKnowsWritingWellsKindWholeWalksRoomsCommunicationReaderEntertainmentStrangerWhole LifeBarsBranchesEmpoweringEngagementImaginaryEngagingJumping Author:George Saunders
“One of the keys is, and it may sound funny, talking about characters with super powers, but one of the keys is to make your characters as realistic and believable as possible. Even if they have super powers, you say to yourself, "Well, if somebody had a super power like this, what would his life be like? Wouldn't he still maybe have to go to the dentist or wouldn't he have to worry about making a living? What about his love life?" You've got to make characters that your reader can believe exists or might exist.” IfsBelieveWellsMayStillsCharacterMightLife IsSoundTalkingWorryKeysReaderLove LifeRealisticHis LoveLife Is LikeDentistBelievableMaking A LivingSuper Power Author:Stan Lee
“Whatever I'm doing, I try to write well. I try to give the reader a nice, clean well-written surface, where the writing is transparent. It probably takes me longer to write things, but it's very important to me that the writing itself be good.” GivingWritingTryingWellsImportantNiceWrittenReaderCleanSurfaceBe GoodTake MeTransparentWell Written Author:Shelby Steele
“A writer is not different from a reader, in that the common ragbag of orthodoxies and assumptions is what a poet has to work with as well.” WellsDifferentCommonPoetReaderAssumptionOrthodoxy Author:Seamus Heaney
“One of the things I love, and I'm a voracious reader as well as a writer, is books that surprise me, that are not predictable.” WellsBookReaderSurprisePredictableThings I LoveSurprise Me Author:George R. R. Martin
“Writing 'Book 1: The Maze of Bones' didn't feel much different than writing one of my other novels, but I thought it was very innovative to offer the website and trading card components as well for those readers who wanted to go more in depth with the Cahill experience.” FeelsWritingWellsBookDifferentWantedNovelReaderOffersDepthBonesCardsTradingComponentsInnovativeWebsiteMazes Author:Rick Riordan
“Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul.” ShouldWritingMindWellsHeartSoulAbleJobsVoiceReaderReflectionWho You AreSentencesYour SoulSeducingWriting Voice Author:Meg Rosoff
“My parents were very well read. They were both New Englanders, not highly educated, but they had a sophisticated... they were both very humanistic, and they were sophisticated readers.” WellsParentReaderEducatedSophisticatedHumanistic Author:Patti Smith